How long has Sugar Love Bakery been open? I started the company in 2011 in a commercial kitchen. Our retail space has been open since January. Before we opened the retail spot, we did mostly catering of weddings and other special events.

When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up? Not a chef. I wanted to be an actress and go to Hollywood. I was in school plays and went to acting school. But I decided to not pursue it anymore when I turned 18.

What's your first food memory? I'm from Puerto Rico. I don't know what these treats are called in English, but in Puerto Rico they're called "limber." They're like snow cones, but they're shaped like things. I was about 6 and I remember scrounging up money with my cousins to go get limber on really hot days.

What was your first job in food? I was a hostess at a Mexican restaurant in St. Cloud when I was 15.

How did you wind up in the bakery business for good? I worked the front of the house for a while, but I wanted to learn to cook. I quit college -- which made my mother very upset -- and went to culinary school when I was 19. I got a degree at Le Cordon Bleu. The baking program did not exist then; all I could get was a culinary certificate. That was 13 years ago.

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My internship was in Paris at a restaurant called Maxim's. I couldn't wait to work in the pastry kitchen, which was incredibly difficult. French people are very intimidating. It was hilarious when they yelled at each other in French.

I've always had a sweet tooth. When I was growing up, we always went out to eat, and the first thing I'd do was look at the dessert menu to see if it was worth saving room for dessert.

How would you describe your style of baking? In a word, "approachable.

" I like to make things that are common, like apple pie or cupcakes, and elevate them a little bit. Not to the point where I'm using so many weird ingredients you don't know what you're eating, though. I want to make things look gorgeous and be approachable. Everything is 100 percent from scratch. We even make our own graham crackers and marshmallows.

What's your favorite thing you serve at the bakery? Stuffed brioche. We get a lot of requests for doughnuts, but we don't have a fryer. Brioche is such a versatile dough, we can make a roll, stuff it and roll it in sugar. My favorite has a filling that's vanilla pastry cream with raspberry jam.

What's something few people know about you? Spanish is my first language. We moved from Puerto Rico to Tallahassee, Fla., when I was 7. That town had an intensive English program. I went to class with kids -- Mexican, South Korean, everyone -- for whom English wasn't their first language.

What's your favorite restaurant? W.A. Frost in St. Paul. I worked there for a while and got to know the executive chef Wyatt Evans very well. His tasting menus are outrageously good. What he does with the food is amazing.

If someone were to play you in a movie, who should it be? The only person who could get my feistiness would be Salma Hayek. I've been compared to her, not in looks but in feistiness. I think she could pull it off.